This year at Zita West clinic we’ve been lucky enough to have supported many couples through their fertility journey and nothing makes us happier to share some of our client’s success stories with you.

Meet our 12 babies of Christmas and hear what their parents have to say about their experience with the Zita West clinic below.

Eleanor and baby Alyssa

Eleanor and Russ’s IVF journey started in July 2013 but following three unsuccessful frozen cycles with another clinic, Russ and Eleanor chose the Zita West Clinic to continue their treatment.

Eleanor says, ‘We started with the Chicago tests which showed several possible reasons why we might have been unsuccessful on prior occasions, all of which could be overcome using various techniques that the Zita West clinic offer. After two more heartbreaking cycles in 2015, Russ and I decided to have one more go in January 2016. This time, two of the embryos failed to thaw but a third embryo was successfully defrosted and implanted, the result of which was a very anxious 8 months, supported throughout by the wonderful team at Zita West and the fantastic Fetal Medicine team at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Our beautiful daughter Alyssa Louise Hope arrived safely in October 2016. We are so incredibly grateful for the amazing support we received from the Zita West Clinic and we can never thank them enough for the miracles they made happen. We hope our story will provide hope and inspiration for others who are going through their own challenging fertility journeys at this time.’

Esma and twins Emir and Ema

After 7 years, and about the same number of miscarriages, two failed IVFs and two failed IUIs, Bosnia native Esma Kreso-Beslagic and her husband were desperate to conceive. After hearing about a successful Zita West clinic story from a friend in London she contacted Dr. George Ndukwe via Skype.

Esma says, ‘He gave us faith, and at the end of the call he said “give me a year and you will have your baby”. After a short trip to London, we came back to Sarajevo and I convinced my doctor in Sarajevo to agree to follow the protocol of Dr. Ndukwe. In January and after various tests and a two week wait, Beta HCG levels came back in hundreds! HUNDREDS! The pregnancy went extremely well and October 2 2015 just 10 days shy of the year Dr. Ndukwe had asked for, Emir and Ema were born. Our whole family was thrilled!

I can never thank Zita West and Dr. Ndukwe enough, for giving us hope, for their kind words and sympathy, for giving us a family and for giving us our broader Zita West family of miracles.”

Liz and baby Madison

Liz and Chris have been together since 2008 and have always wanted to have children. At 40, Liz is 7 years older than Chris so when they failed to get pregnant as quickly as they hoped they begun fertility treatment. After two unsuccessful rounds of IVF on the NHS, Liz contacted the Zita West clinic.

Liz says, ‘I’d heard great things about Zita West. Their holistic approach to health and well-being while being focused on the ultimate goal of getting pregnant really appealed to me. After meeting Dr George we knew we wanted to go ahead again, just one last time! We were fortunate enough to be able to afford one round of IVF privately and I did everything to make sure I was ready, however it turns out I have a very overactive immune system and my body was rejecting my embryos. But knowing all this meant we could formulate a plan.

I’m not going to lie. It was hard work and hard on me – the hormones, injections, diet, transfer process, two week wait and then the pregnancy itself. My placenta tried to detach at 22 weeks and 31 weeks but, we held on and the result of all that hard work is Madison, our little monkey. Madison is nearly 14 months old now, walking and causing general havoc but she is our little miracle baby. She’s completed our little family.’

Sarah and baby Harry

Sarah 35 and Matt 37 met in 2005 and a year later Sarah stopped the contraceptive pill with the idea of if it happens it happens. But it didn’t.

After months of trying, the couple were referred for IVF. Following three difficult and unsuccessful NHS funded rounds Sarah was recommended the Zita West Clinic, who drew up a tailor made treatment plan for Sarah. After another failed round and a miscarriage, Sarah and Matt waited another year before deciding to try again for the sixth time. And this cycle worked.

Sarah says: ‘Harry peck born 27.02.2016 at 04.24 weighing 7lb 5oz. He is so perfect and we love him to bits. We can’t thank the team at the clinic enough for all their hard work, support and kindness. I would recommend the zita west clinic to anyone, and advise to get tested if problems with fertility. I would say if you are to embark on this journey, keep an open mind, try to relax as much as possible, really watch your diet, take vitamins and above all else, stay strong in your relationship and don’t give up.’

Tamara and baby Harry

Tamara and her husband started trying for a baby at 37, and after two years without success, went to her GP and was referred for IVF.

After 3 cycles on the NHS, Tamara was told at the end of her third cycle that she had a 1-2% chance of having a baby.

Tamara refused to give up. She says: ‘I was recommended Zita West by my acupuncturist who said they had very good success rates with women over 40 years. My first attempt I got 3 or 4 eggs and did get pregnant but unfortunately I had a miscarriage. But at least I’d fallen pregnant. I knew I wanted to try again and this time I got 9 eggs, I got 2 embryos implanted and that resulted in Harry. He’s so gorgeous and everything I could have ever wished for.’

Victoria and baby Phoebe

Victoria and her husband Lee went though an emotional rollercoaster during their 5 rounds of IVF and repeated miscarriage, which caused Victoria to become very low and have to leave her job. The couple found their way to the Zita West clinic after reading an article in a newspaper and met our medical director Dr George Nduwke.

Victoria says: ‘We had four cycles on the NHS, two with fresh embryos and two using frozen embryos. Those resulted in two miscarriages, another miscarriage with twins and one was unsuccessful. It was very emotional. After coming to the Zita West clinic, we underwent reproductive immunology treatment. I fell pregnant with Phoebe on our first cycle, and we still have five frozen embryos. We strongly believe that the NHS should offer RI, we have no doubts it worked for us and could have saved us so much heartache if we’d had it earlier.”

Francesca and baby Bartholomew

After a significant period of time trying to conceive naturally and two failed rounds of IVF, Francesca and Scott were told it could take multiple rounds of IVF to result in a baby, and began to search for an alternative solution.

Francesca says, ‘It was at this point that a friend told me about the Zita West clinic and gave me a copy of Zita’s Pregnancy companion book – I think I devoured the book in about twenty-four hours! So, armed with a healthy body and a positive mental attitude we began our round of IVF with the Zita West Clinic. Throughout the process, everyone at the clinic made us feel as if it was a team effort. Small things made all of the difference to us. Everyone knew our names, they knew where we were in our treatment cycle and I didn’t feel as if we were just another couple going through this. We were made to feel valued and important.

On embryo transfer day, Dr. George was very reassuring and the entire experience was totally relaxed. Nine months later, we had a bouncing baby boy. No words will ever be able to convey how grateful we are to George and the Zita West team. They have made our dream come true.’

Tanja and baby Elkie

It took Tanja nearly for 6 years and the experience of multiple miscarriages to conceive, but she never gave up. In total, she underwent three rounds of IVF, two which ended up in miscarriage, one that didn’t work, one natural pregnancy which also ended in miscarriage before her fourth round of IVF resulted in little Elke.

She recalls: ‘I reached the point where I was just getting stressed about not getting pregnant basically, and also then recovering from every miscarriage. It was just heartbreaking. You start having people telling you all these stories of, “Oh well, these people tried six times and they still got pregnant.” You’d think that’s not very helpful because that’s them and this is me. I started actually thinking about what if it never actually happens?

Each time I fell pregnant I’d lose the baby. I just wanted to find a clinic that did things differently so I came back to Zita West and after 6 difficult years, 3 rounds of IVF 4 pregnancies and 3 miscarriages – my 4th round of IVF with Zita West clinic resulted in little Elke.’

Tanya, who had been diagnosed by her GP with unexplained infertility and first underwent IVF on the NHS and at another private clinic says: ‘For my final round, I just wanted a clinic that did something differently. I wanted to try Reproductive Immunology and that made me come back to the Zita West clinic (where I’d previously had one private round of IVF). I thought ‘I don’t want to do the same thing over again. I want someone to try something different’ – and baby Elke was the result.

Fleur and baby Estella

Fleur and David’s IVF journey started with the NHS but they found the process slow and were keen to start a family immediately. A friend recommended Zita West clinic and their first round initially seemed to go really well, but didn’t result in pregnant. As part of the process, the couple tried some of the pioneering treatments we offer, including reproductive immunology and genetic screening.

Fleur says, ‘For us genetic screening was perfect because we had twelve embryos and only one of the twelve was viable (that one was Estella). If we hadn’t done the testing we would probably be waited a long time to get pregnant, maybe even years, and who knows if we would have carried on. When things went well, or didn’t go well, everyone at the Zita West clinic was so lovely and professional.’

Alice and baby Jack

Alice had previously undergone 3 failed IVF cycles prior to coming to the Zita West clinic. In addition, NHS staff had previously said that their chances of success through IVF was barely 15%.

Alice says: ‘My husband and I regard our son as an example of what amazing things science can achieve. I have no doubt that his life was made possible by the cutting edge reproductive immunology based treatments I underwent, plus the holistic medical approach provided by the team at Zita West.

The couple first came to the clinic for nutrition & holistic treatment after their IVF cycle on the NHS in a bid to improve their egg quality.

Alice says: We then had 2 cycles elsewhere and embryo quality massively improved based on Zita West’s support. However, I was still rejecting high quality blastocysts & could not get pregnant. It was only when we opted to have full immune testing with Zita West on my 4th IVF cycle (1st with Zita) that immune issues were properly treated and 2 top quality blastocysts were transferred, leading to us getting little Jack. Jack is now a healthy and happy 10 month old.

Hayley and twins Isabella and Samuel

Hayley, 36 and Kujan, 37, had been trying to conceive for over a year, before undergoing fertility tests on the NHS four years ago. Hayley was told that she had high follicle stimulating hormones and therefore they were unlikely to conceive, even with IVF, and they would have to go with donor eggs if they wanted children.

Hayley says, ‘We were devastated to hear we would have to use donor eggs, and decided to go down the alternative route with acupuncture. Our acupuncturist was the person who told us about Zita West.’

‘At the Zita West clinic, Dr George Nduwke didn’t even mention donor eggs. We underwent 3 cycles using our own eggs, the first one was unsuccessful. We then had the natural killer cell test and I opted to have intralipids. In the second cycle we ended up pregnant with twins but at about 20 weeks we found out our babies had twin to twin transfusion syndrome we ended up losing them. It was a terrible time, but we wanted to try again. We started the 3rd try, a few months later, and fell pregnant with twins again. From this came our beautiful babies Isabella and Samuel. We still can’t believe they are ours!’

Natalia and baby Jasmine

Natalia has had 10 cycles of IVF, at a cost of almost £50k, and Jasmine was her lucky cycle number 10. Natalia needed IVF as a result of a burst ovarian cyst in 2005 that left one fallopian tube blocked, and then an ectopic pregnancy in 2009 resulted in the other being removed.

Natalia says: ‘We’ve funded IVF by remortgaging our house, but we’ve got Jasmine so that is ok! We still can’t believe how lucky we are.’

After 9 failed cycles, Natalia heard about the Zita West clinic via a friend. Natalia says: ‘I also read about the clinic in a newspaper and their work with immunolipids for natural killer cells. We went ahead with Zita West for our 10th cycle and baby Jasmine was the result.’

‘Jasmine has a little smile that fills her whole face. We can’t imagine life without Jasmine. She completes us. I can’t even put into words how happy and grateful we are. Zita West is our fairy godmother.’

If you are looking for a fertility specialist then Zita West and her dedicated and industry leading team are on hand to provide you with the best medical and complementary therapy support available.

Welcome to the Zita West Blog

My approach to fertility, IVF and pregnancy has always been an holistic one. I believe that the best way to conceive is to start by looking at five key areas in your life - medical, nutrition, relationship, mindset and lifestyle.

I'm hoping to offer you many insights in these areas for you in this fertility blog and I'd love your input! What are your questions about fertility, conception and pregnancy?